From Ken Hylins

I attended the Regional Forum on November 19^th, where the Regional Manager put forward his aims and projections for the coming year. He has been heavily involved in the Toddbrook  Reservoir issue, using up much of his time, and he reiterated that the repair would not come out of CRT’s budget. The concern will be the loss of its water to the respective canals if we have low rainfall next year. Then there followed a presentation of all the sub-area managers’ aims and responsibilities, stating with vigour their staff numbers and the skills at their disposal. However, my concerns are that there is a small number of staff per area of responsibility; staff are complaining that they are run ragged and any compound issue that I see would be a problem. The one thing that was apparent was that the manager wanted issues to be related to customer services so that, once raised, they could be dealt with.

There was mention of canalside vegetation regarding offside and towpath maintenance. This was a tricky subject as there were many points raised by the canal societies. There was also a presentation of future areas of work, which can be obtained from the CRT website. The recurring theme was that to get things done in the North West, report it, and if it does not get any attention, follow it up until the matter is attended to or acknowledged. I feel we have the necessary channels to raise our membership concerns within the North West region.